The Election Commission pointed out that Selangor and Terengganu are underrepresented in the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives), while Sabah and Sarawak have many elected representatives.
According to a recent report by Sinar Harian quoting Election Commission Deputy Chairman Azmi Sharom, Selangor has about 2.9 million voters, but only 22 parliamentary seats. Terengganu, with 931,000 voters, has just 8 parliamentary seats.
Because of this, each MP represents as many as 132,000 and 116,000 voters respectively.
In East Malaysia, Sabah has 1.9 million voters and 25 parliamentary seats, which means each MP represents an average of 76,000 voters, while Sarawak has 2 million voters and 31 parliamentary seats, equivalent to each MP representing 65,000 voters.
According to the national average, each MP represents more than 95,000 voters.
"Selangor's population is very dense and large, but comparatively has few parliamentary seats."
"The combined population of Sabah and Sarawak only accounts for 16% of the nation, yet they hold 25% of the 222 parliamentary seats."
Although Sabah and Sarawak have an excessive number of representatives in the Dewan Rakyat, Azmi said this should not be questioned, as this arrangement has long been included in the Federal Constitution.
He added that since the Federal Constitution only states that "the number of voters in each constituency should be roughly equal," this imbalance does not clearly violate existing laws.
According to statistics department data, Bangi is the most populous parliamentary constituency in the country as of 2024, with around 723,800 residents.
Next is Kota Raja with 550,600 residents, and Subang with 503,300 residents, and all three constituencies are in Selangor.
In contrast, the least populated are Kanowit with 25,300 people, Lubok Antu with 27,400, and Igan with 28,000, all three located in Sarawak.
The constituency with the highest population density is Wangsa Maju in Kuala Lumpur, with 13,587 people per square kilometer; followed by Pandan in Selangor with 11,713 people per square kilometer, and Jelutong in Penang with 11,576 people per square kilometer.
Azmi pointed out that when delineating constituencies, the Election Commission must consider both the demographic structure and the geographical area of constituencies, particularly for sparsely populated but vast interior areas.
"If we are forced to make the number of voters in each constituency exactly equal, some constituencies would become too geographically large, which would be unfair to the elected representatives."
However, he also emphasized the need for clearer guidelines in future exercise of constituency redelineation.
He stated that the Election Commission's responsibility is only to review and delineate constituencies every eight years, while the final decision to increase parliamentary or state assembly seats remains with Parliament and the State Legislative Assemblies.